Anil Ambani takes 'Swachh Bharat' campaign to Badri, Kedar

After Churchgate in downtown Mumbai, industrialist Anil Ambani Saturday took the Swachh Bharat campaign to Badrinath and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand, and appealed to the people to particularly keep India's temple towns clean.

Ambani, who was among the nine people personally invited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join the clean India campaign and also prasied for such efforts, said there were two reasons that he was visiting the two holy towns.

"The first reason is to take the blessings of Badrinathji and Kedarnathji. The second reason that I would like to share with you is: We do not keep our temples and places around it as clean as they should be," Ambani said.

"So let's all take this responsibility from today and keep our religious places clean."

Anil, who cleaned the area around Churchgate station in downtown Mumbai last week along with his friends," further said: "In the name of Badrinathji and Kedarnathji, let's make each and every temple, place of worship clean to accomplish the Swachh Bharat Mission."

Modi had lauded Ambani's effort last week and said he had also invited actors Amitabh Bachchan, Hritik Roshan and Nagarjuna, sportspersons Mary Kom and Sania Mirza, writers Shobha De and Prasoon Joshi, and journalist Shekhar Gupta to join the campaign.

"Wonderful effort by Shri Anil Ambani, who cleaned the area around Churchgate station in Mumbai along with his friends," Modi had tweeted. "I hope they also join Swachh Bharat Mission and inspire others to do so."

The prime minister had launched the campaign Oct 2, Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, and since then it has been widely propagated and practiced across the country.

Ambani was among nine eminent people like cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, actors Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Kamal Haasan, yoga guru Ramdev and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, picked by the prime minister to propagate the "Swachh Bharat" mission.

"I am honored to be invited by our respected Prime Minister Shri Narendrabhai Modi to join the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan," Ambani had said in a statement. "I dedicate myself to this movement and invite nine other leading Indians to join me in the 'Clean India' campaign."